Were Those Bandits Idiots?

After Yuri and Luca dragged the bandits' bodies off the road and into the bushes, I cast Cleanliness on them to remove the blood and grime from their work. Yuri decided to take only the broadsword carried by the bandit leader as a trophy. According to him, the rest of their belongings weren't worth much. Adventurers really were resourceful.

Once we cleaned up the scene, we resumed our journey along the road. We'd lost some time, but we were still on track to reach the next village by sundown.

The village didn't have an inn, but we were prepared to camp. The village elder granted us permission to use the square, and we bought fresh meat, vegetables, and bread from the locals to make dinner. It was more than enough for a decent meal.

As we were setting up, a black carriage pulled into the village, accompanied by several guards. The carriage stopped at the elder's house, and the noble family it carried entered without much fanfare.

"That's definitely a noble," Yuri remarked, eyeing the crest painted on the side of the carriage.

"Yeah," Luca agreed. "The crest confirms it."

"Really?" I asked, curious.

Yuri and Luca explained that carriages bearing crests belonged to noble families. Neither of them recognized this particular crest, so they couldn't determine the family's rank, but it was clear we needed to avoid offending them.

The noble and their entourage would be staying in the elder's home. Naturally, nobles didn't camp outdoors, and the elder wouldn't dare refuse them.

As we sat down to eat, one of the guards approached us.

"Excuse me," the guard said, his tone polite but firm. "I serve House Ivaldi. Were the bandit corpses along the road your doing?"

Yuri stood and nodded. "Yes, sir knight. We were the ones who dealt with them."

"I see," the knight replied, his eyes narrowing slightly. "That sword… it was taken from one of the bandits, wasn't it?"

"Ah, yes," Yuri admitted, holding up the broadsword. "I took it because it seemed to be of good quality."

"May I see it?"

Yuri hesitated briefly but handed the sword over. The knight didn't unsheath it; instead, he examined the hilt closely before returning it.

"Thank you. That was all I needed to confirm." He handed the sword back and nodded. "You three took care of that many bandits on your own? Impressive. You must be quite skilled adventurers."

"We're just doing our job," Yuri said modestly. "The boy here is our charge, so it was mostly the two of us."

"Even more impressive," the knight said, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Our house could use capable hands like yours. In any case, thank you for your efforts. I'll leave you to your meal."

With that, the knight returned to the elder's house. As soon as he was out of sight, Yuri and Luca began inspecting the broadsword more closely.

"Look here," Yuri said, running his fingers along the hilt. "This area's been deliberately filed down."

"No way… Is this a knight's sword?" Luca gasped. "If so, the bandits might've been targeting that carriage."

They seemed to come to a conclusion as they resumed preparing dinner. From what I gathered, the bandits were originally planning to ambush the noble's carriage. However, when our small group passed through first, the bandits decided to attack us as an easy warm-up—and paid the ultimate price for their greed.

"Wait," I said, putting the pieces together. "Were those bandits complete idiots?"

Yuri chuckled. "Pretty much. Though I think the leader was the real mastermind. The rest of them were just your run-of-the-mill bandits."

"What do you mean?"

"They probably planned to hit the carriage, but when the grunts saw just the three of us, they couldn't resist. The leader likely couldn't control them."

"Ah, I see," I said, nodding.

In the end, our fight had likely saved the noble carriage from an ambush. Still, it didn't seem like we'd be getting any thanks for it. Yuri and Luca shrugged it off, explaining that since we'd acted on our own, it was simply how things worked.

Even if it was just bad luck for the bandits, it felt good to know we'd inadvertently prevented a worse situation.